Croupier Page #5

JACK shakes his head

REYNOLDS:

Girlfriend?

JACK:

Yes.

REYNOLDS:

She's not in the gaming business

is she?

JACK:

No.

INT. CASINO - "CROW'S NEST" - DAY

A CCTV Centre over the casino. JACK crosses the room,

looking down through a glass floor at the empty casino

below. REYNOLDS walks over to a series of twenty or more

banked TV monitors with many Video 8 tape decks.

REYNOLDS:

This is our Crow's Nest. I'm showing

it to you now, but you'll never

see it again.

JACK:

Very impressive.

REYNOLDS:

We have tapes in here that go back

six months. Let me show you

something.

REYNOLDS presses a button. Together they look at a TV

monitor which shows an overlook of a roulette table where

a WOMAN is cheating. REYNOLDS freezes the frame.

REYNOLDS:

See that? That was six weeks ago.

The dealer missed it. The guy up

here missed it, but I watch these

tapes after hours. Nothing gets by

me. Now the lady's in jail. It's

easier to take ten million pounds

from a bank than take one penny

from this casino.

INT. CASINO - MANAGER'S OFFICE - DAY

Again in the office. REYNOLDS extends his hand. JACK shakes

it.

REYNOLDS:

You can start Monday week.

JACK:

Fine.

REYNOLDS:

That hair will have to go.

JACK:

Fine.

Pause.

REYNOLDS:

Are you planning to make a career

in casino work?

JACK'S VOICE

And end up like you?

JACK:

I just want the job.

REYNOLDS:

Jack, you're not the usual type we

get here.

JACK'S VOICE

Mr Reynolds was right. It was true.

Jack was up above the world. An

artist, living in the clouds.

Looking down.

A HIGH ANGLED SHOT of the office, JACK and REYNOLDS. The

phone rings.

REYNOLDS:

Excuse me...

REYNOLDS picks up and listens. The CAMERA descends.

REYNOLDS:

I can't talk about this now... no,

I'm with somebody. They can wait!

I'll be home at the usual time...

all right, I'll call you back in

an hour...

(hangs up)

Don't ever get married, Jack. Casino

work doesn't mix with house and

garden. Any questions?

The CAMERA reaches a LOW ANGLE on JACK, looking up.

JACK:

Yes. What's the salary?

EXT. CAR - STREETS - TWILIGHT

The street lamps have come on. JACK is at the wheel of a

Sixties Austin-Healey.

JACK'S VOICE

The casino paid its staff monthly

in arrears. He would have to wait

six weeks for his first cheque. He

needed money now.

EXT. USED CAR LOT - TWILIGHT

Under a canopy of coloured lights A CAR DEALER is walking

round jack's car, examining it.

DEALER:

(fake American accent)

What kind of deal you looking to?

JACK:

What's the Blue Book price?

DEALER:

That's not relevant. An old car

like this, it depends on the

condition.

JACK'S VOICE

The car was a gift from Jack's

father. That's to say, Jack Senior

had given it to him before the

bailiffs arrived.

The DEALER picks at the cracked leather seats, the

protruding stuffing, the chipped dashboard, the rust.

DEALER:

This ain't exactly what you'd call

mint.

He bends down and looks underneath the car.

JACK:

How about fifteen hundred?

DEALER:

How about five hundred.

JACK:

What?!

DEALER:

How about we split the diff...

Seven-fifty.

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